"Neal's hiring is the result of a comprehensive search for a baseball executive who could restore the culture of success within the Pirates organization," said Coonelly. "Neal is extremely intelligent, analytical and driven to succeed. He shares my vision on how to transform the Pirates into an organization that can consistently compete. Equally important, Neal knows how to implement the changes, systems and philosophies required to accomplish that goal. He is absolutely the right choice to lead our baseball operations department and to build a winning organization of which all Pirate fans can be proud."

If the Pirates are no longer willing to be the Cubs' second AAA team, who will be Hendry's patsy now?

Railsplitter

09-27-2007, 09:34 PM

This guy has a tough job a head of him. Just getting the Pirates over.500 would be enough of a task.

drewcifer

09-27-2007, 09:49 PM

I honestly have no idea who this man is. Did he have a specialty with the Toons?

And why does everyone say there's such a "tough job" ahead? We all know the Pirates have sucked, consistently, for awhile.

But the Pirates have a ****-ton of great talent - most notably their SP. You can build a GREAT team with the makings they have and someone (GM job) with half a brain. It's an NL team that has pitching! I know they have to compete with the perennial $ spenders but this team has been on the receiving end of $, a new park, and lots of reasons to turn their act around.